Kiryas Joel tells state that growth is 'inevitable'

Thursday

Mar 27, 2014 at 2:00 AMMar 27, 2014 at 4:38 PM

Kiryas Joel officials contend the continued growth of their community is inevitable and can be accommodated in various ways, even without the proposed annexation of 507 acres that a group of Monroe property owners have requested.

BY CHRIS MCKENNA

Kiryas Joel officials contend the continued growth of their community is inevitable and can be accommodated in various ways, even without the proposed annexation of 507 acres that a group of Monroe property owners have requested.

In recent correspondence with a state agency that lent Kiryas Joel money for the $45 million water pipeline it's building, village officials say that even under current Town of Monroe zoning, 1,264 housing units could be built in the area targeted for annexation to keep pace with the community's steady population growth.

They also argue that more housing could be squeezed into the largely developed, one square mile that Kiryas Joel now occupies by allowing higher density, raising the limit on building heights and razing the occasional single-family home to build more apartments.

One house on Van Buren Drive, they note, was recently replaced with 18 units.

Kiryas Joel made those comments in a Jan. 31 response to the state Environmental Facilities Corp., which has been pressing the village to explain how it intends to repay $27.9 million it borrowed in 2010 to build a 13.5-mile pipeline to the Catskill Aqueduct. The village has so far spent about $10.3 million in state funds on pipe construction, which stopped for the winter in November and was due to resume this month.

The village's repayment plan relies on unabated housing construction and the collection of water connection fees from developers, who must pay $6,000 for each new housing unit in the current village boundaries and $25,000 per unit outside them, with or without annexation.

Even if the annexation didn't occur, officials say the village could reap $31 million "over time" by approving water connections for the 1,264 housing units they say could be built in the targeted area under Monroe zoning.

They say they've collected more than $1 million for "previously approved development projects" there.

"Growth in Village population is internally and culturally driven and therefore inevitable and will be accommodated in the variety of ways described herein," they wrote in their response, submitted by their attorneys at Whiteman Osterman & Hanna, an Albany firm.

In addition to charging water connection fees, village officials have told the state they raised residential water rates by 36 percent and doubled the price for businesses this year to help cover the project cost.

The Environmental Facilities Corp. warned Kiryas Joel on Jan. 7 that it was suspending loan payments until the village satisfied the terms of its loan extension, and that it "continues to have concerns regarding the viability of the project."

It's unclear if the village's seven-page response and supporting documents — furnished by the EFC in response to a Freedom of Information Law request — fully resolved those concerns. But payments have resumed. Agency spokesman Jon Sorensen said Wednesday that the agency made a $685,000 disbursement to Kiryas Joel last week.

Pipeline construction is still on hiatus. As of Monday, Orange County officials had gotten no schedule from Kiryas Joel's contractor for continuing work along County Route 44.

The controversial annexation petition filed on Dec. 27 is also on hold, pending a decision by the state Department of Environmental Conservation on whether Kiryas Joel or Monroe will oversee a study of the proposal's potential impact.